Mugshots of Eli Regalado, left, and Kaitlyn Regalado. (Denver District Attorney’s Office)
A Denver pastor who persuaded 600 people to spend $3.4 million for a supposedly God-inspired cryptocurrency has been charged with 40 counts of theft, fraud and racketeering.
Eli Regalado, 45, and his wife Kaitlin, 32, were indicted by a grand jury in Denver this week. They turned themselves in to police and were released on bond, court records show.
The long list of criminal charges against the Regalados arrive 18 months after the Colorado Division of Securities filed a civil lawsuit accusing them of using Christianity to bilk investors in INDXcoin, a cryptocurrency that cannot be traded or sold, rendering it worthless.
Those allegations and the Regalados’ defenses were the subject of a three-day civil trial in early May. The Regalados, representing themselves in the case, were reprimanded at times for sermonizing…
